“Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.” (Ephesians 4:3-4 NLT)
What comes first to mind when you think about unity? Being on the proverbial “same page?” Having similar goals, aspirations, desires, needs? Having similar beliefs, be they religious, political, educational, or otherwise?
Paul speaks of being “united in the Spirit.” What does that mean? There are several implications. First, in order to be united in the Spirit, the Spirit must be united with us, individually. The Spirit will not unite, at least in the sense in which Paul uses the term, believers and unbelievers. He addresses this in 2 Corinthians 6. The point being, unity in the Spirit is a Christian endeavor that doesn’t come automatically just because we are a Jesus follower.
Paul says that we’re to “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit,” which implies it requires intentionality on our part, but why? Why is it so important to maintain unity in the Spirit with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Unity begets effectiveness on many levels.
Imagine several people helping someone with a project, but each individual had a different vision of what that project should look like and/or what the outcome of the project should be. Jesus has given us a singular mission with a singular vision: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Our oneness isn’t attained by how we do something, but why and for Whom. Making disciples is a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional process that takes years, but it also takes lots of people with different levels of spiritual maturity, different personalities, different views, and different ways of accomplishing the same task.
Imagine me, as an American, going to Africa or Asia and trying to superimpose my methods of discipleship onto a culture about which I know very little. Wouldn’t it make more sense to learn more about the people with whom I would be working? And what would be the basis of that process? Our oneness in Jesus. But beyond that, our oneness is grounded in the Truth of who He is and what He taught.
Methodology is secondary to Truth. If what I’m teaching isn’t the Truth, it doesn’t matter how effective it is. That’s why J.C. Ryle’s words ring so clearly when he wrote: “Unity and peace are very delightful; but they are bought too dear if they are bought at the expense of Truth.” Our unity, according to Paul, is bound together with peace, largely, I believe, because not much is accomplished for good without it.
As believers in the Lord Jesus, these two issues: unity and peace, can be very divisive, largely because we want to bicker about whose unity or what the basis of our peace must be. Can’t the truth of who Jesus is and what He died to accomplish be enough? Can’t we simply work together to help lost people find their way home to Jesus? Does it really matter who gets the credit?
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 